Federer's seamless journey about to get trickier

— -- PARIS -- Bosnia had never landed a male tennis player in a Grand Slam draw, but growing up, Damir Dzumhur dreamed of playing like Roger Federer.

Friday, at age 23, Dzumhur found himself actually playing the 17-time Grand Slam champion on Court Philippe-Chatrier.

Federer grew up in Switzerland rooting for Boris Becker and Stefan Edberg but never got to play them. He did, however, have the opportunity to play Pete Sampras at Centre Court at Wimbledon in 2001 -- and beat him.

"Very exciting playing with the guys you see on TV," Federer said. "You wonder if your game matches up, because it's so surreal. It was the most exciting time, almost, in my playing career. The transformation from juniors to professional, rubbing shoulders with those guys, very cool."

The No. 2 seed, Federer, it can now be reported, did not experience a shoulder-rubbing Sampras stunner at Roland Garros, defeating Dzumhur 6-4, 6-3, 6-2. The match ran a tidy 88 minutes and Federer stroked 60 winners and committed 26 unforced errors.

Federer (ho-hum) advanced to the fourth round here for the 11th consecutive year.

Since that infamous security breach last Sunday, the first day of this year's French Open, things have settled down for Federer. He's won all nine of his sets, and now he's contemplating a Sunday fourth-round match with the winner of the later Gael Monfils- Pablo Cuevas encounter.

Federer played both of them on clay in April, losing to Monfils in straight sets in Monte Carlo and taking down Cuevas in the Istanbul final. He also beat Cuevas earlier this month, in the second round at the Rome Masters. Federer has played Monfils three times at Roland Garros, beating him in the 2009 and 2011 quarterfinals and the 2008 semifinals but lost to him in a 2014 Davis Cup match.

"They're both really comfortable on clay, Federer observed. "I'll watch it, clearly, with a lot of interest."